RISE OF FATHERRIGHT 95 



a mate. The weaker members of his tiny horde would 

 cling about him as their defence and mainstay. Their 

 relation to him would entail discipline and subordina- 

 tion ; and his authority would necessarily become 

 unquestioned and supreme. The effect of this 

 constant association would be that a far stronger bond 

 would be felt between father and child than between 

 the child and his mother's kin, with whom perhaps he 

 only at rare and irregular intervals came into contact. 

 The development of father-right in this way would 

 be unchecked, unless the wandering for subsist- 

 ence ceased at regular intervals by the reunion of the 

 larger community. In the event of such reunion 

 motherright might long retain its legal force, or as 

 among the Eskimo kinship might come to be re- 

 cognised through both parents. 



The evolution of human society more commonly 

 takes a different direction. It is dependent not on 

 weakness but on strength and prowess. The impulse 

 to domineer by virtue of physical superiority has 

 asserted itself in all ages. The capture of women 

 has doubtless been always going on. Thus side by 

 side with marriages in which the husband resided with 

 or visited the wife, arose the practice of keeping one 

 or more captive women at a man's own home for his 

 use and benefit. The power in the household given 

 to him by such an arrangement would be desired by 

 others who had not the opportunity of making hostile 

 raids for the purpose of capture. It was obtained by 

 elopement, by simulated capture, by exchange, by 

 the payment of what we call a bride-price. In any 

 one of these ways or by a combination of two of them 

 marriage is entered into in various parts of the world. 



